Standing in the center of a crowded and stuffy high school gymnasium in Sussex County late last month, Governor Christie said that New Jerseyans, by voting for Republicans in November, can “really send a message” to Democrats in the Legislature who have yet to embrace his income-tax credit.

His Democratic opponent for governor, state Sen. Barbara Buono, has been using a different issue to try to galvanize supporters. She argues that Christie isn’t the moderate he appears to be, citing his veto last year of a bill that would have allowed same-sex couples to marry in New Jersey.

Yet New Jersey voters don’t really care that much about either of those issues, recent statewide polls have shown. Nor do they appear to care much about the state’s recovery from Superstorm Sandy, which Christie emphasized in the weeks leading up to the July 4 holiday, or about funding for women’s health care, a priority of Buono’s.

Instead, the economy, jobs and New Jersey’s sky-high property tax bills are what voters tell pollsters they want to hear more about as they prepare to decide one of only two gubernatorial contests being held in the United States this year.

So why are the two candidates largely ignoring the issues foremost on the minds of New Jersey voters?

For Christie, whose popularity is fueled by support from all voting groups, analysts say the answer rests in both his national ambitions and his own vulnerability on taxes and the economy.

“The tax cut, to me, seems to be a message to his base and a message nationally: ‘I’m a conservative, I want to cut taxes,’” said David Redlawsk, a political science professor who is director of the Rutgers-Eagleton Poll. “But you don’t win an election in New Jersey on being a conservative. The New Jersey message is, ‘I’m an effective leader post-Sandy.’”

Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Poll, said Christie hasn’t emphasized property taxes because it’s an area where’s he vulnerable. Property tax bills in New Jersey are up more than $300 on average since he took office in early 2010, while funding for property tax rebates has been slashed.

For Christie, the game plan seems to be to emphasize what voters consider his strength, which is being a decisive leader.

“The trait that really defines him [is] leadership and effectiveness,” Redlawsk said. “These are completely independent of where people stand on the issues.

“So essentially what’s going on with Chris Christie in this election campaign is people are voting not on the issues but on their sense that the guy is leading,” he said.

Buono, meanwhile, has had trouble shoring up her own base. As unions and Democratic leaders across the state endorse Christie, she is still trying to keep party loyalists on her side. That’s why, even with the primary election behind her, she’s still talking about things that liberals care more about than the average voter does.

Spending so much time on an issue like same-sex marriage to shore up support among Democrats in July is a sign of a problem, Murray said.

“She’s using this issue, which, quite frankly, even for her base is not a terribly important issue,” he said. “This doesn’t appeal to the economic Democratic voter. It appeals to the social-issue Democratic voter.

“This is part of her base that should have been a done deal right now,” Murray said.

Buono is also talking about her support for gay marriage and boosting funding for women’s health care to show voters that she’s the more mainstream candidate for New Jersey, Redlawsk said.

“Christie is doing incredibly well among Democrats,” he said. “The first thing she has to do is get Democrats to come back to their party.”

Buono has not done much yet to tell voters why they should support her over Christie, choosing instead to offer herself as the governor’s opposite, Redlawsk said. That’s a challenge right now, because Christie enjoys strong popularity among all voters.

“You can’t just run a campaign on some individual issues,” he said. “You’ve got to have a bigger narrative, and I’m not sure we’ve seen that. ‘Not Christie’ is clearly not going to win this time.”

Murray said Buono should be really going after Christie on property taxes, an issue voters do care about and on which the governor is weak.

“At the very least, she could be throwing him off his game,” Murray said.